UC Berkeley reverses decision, allows Ann Coulter to deliver speech

The University of California, Berkeley, which canceled a speech
by Ann Coulter over what the school said were security
concerns, on Thursday rescheduled the event after the
conservative commentator said she would show up and speak
anyway.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said the university had
canceled the April 27 event on Wednesday based on specific
intelligence of threats "that could pose a grave danger to the
speaker."Dirks said in a statement that the university, in its
commitment to free speech, had found an "appropriate,
protectable" venue where Coulter's speech could go forward in a
safe environment on May 2.

In apparent response to the decision, Coulter tweeted "Berkeley
just imposed an all-new arbitrary & harassing condition on
my exercise of a constitutional right."

One of the country's best-known conservative pundits, Coulter
had been scheduled to speak to a college Republican club about
her 2015 book, "¡Adios, America!: The Left's Plan to Turn Our
Country Into a Third World Hellhole."

Berkeley is known as the birthplace of the student-led Free
Speech Movement of the 1960s. As with other US colleges and
universities, it has tried to find a balance between
ideological openness, student safety and student opposition to
what some describe as "hate speech."

In recent months, several conservative speakers have been met
with disruptive, sometimes violent protests when invited to
speak at US universities with liberal-leaning student bodies.

In cancelling Coulter's speech on Wednesday, UC Berkeley cited
violence that broke out at the campus in February, hours before
right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to
speak there.

Coulter in a Fox News interview later on Wednesday said she
would still speak.

Following the violence surrounding Yiannopoulos' planned
lecture and UC Berkeley's decision to cancel it, President
Donald Trump, who had taken office just days earlier,
threatened to cut off funding to the school.

On Tuesday, police arrested at least three people protesting an
appearance at Alabama's Auburn University by Richard Spencer, a
prominent white nationalist.